Prevalence of Hearing Loss among Infants in Khoy Region of West Azerbayjan- Iran

Background and Objectives: Children normally begin to speaking in 1.5 to 2 years of age. So if the child has hearing deficiency couldn’t identify by 18 months of age. The aim of this study is the early diagnosis of hearing lost in children befor 18 months of age. Materials and Methods: In the present study prevalence of hearing lost was studied among young children and infants during the last 8 months of 2011 Khoy assessed. In first stage with TEOAE test. Infants that failed, rescreened with TEOAE. Infants that failed again, refered for evaluation with diagnostic ABR. Results: From total infants that assessed, 233 failed initial screening with TEOAE and 12 failed second screening. 137 infants missed in this study, because of failure of families to return for retesting. In total, only one infant with mild to moderate sensory neural hearing loss identified. Conclusion: The worldwide incidence hearing loss is 1-3 per 1000 live births. probably the main reason of low incidence of hearing loss in current study is failure of families to return for retesting.